Myriad Genetics argues that since it was the first molecular diagnostic company to reach one of the many summits that exists within some human beings' mountain range of DNA (and because it spent a lot of money to reach that summit), it has a right to plant the Myriad Genetic's “flag” or “banner” thereon, claiming ownership on our genetic structures (like European colonizers would plant their flags on foreign rations to claim them as their own).
Having planted “their flag,” Myriad Genetics wants our government to back it up so that it can demand, at a price that it sets, a toll from anyone who wants to locate, reach, and find beneficial uses of that same summit within the bodies of human beings. Problem is, they don't own, nor have sovereignty over, the DNA mountain ranges where those peaks are found. Individual human beings do.
Myriad Genetics needs to understand this. Just because someone or some business spends a lot of money to achieve some noteworthy goal does not ipso facto mean that they earn the right to wield a government-enforced monopoly to profit from their efforts. Some scientific peaks, some human endeavors, some calls to excellence, and some actual peaks are scaled not for the purpose of conquest, profit, or right to possess, but for the mere achievement, and as a beacon for all to follow who can.
Just as Sir Edmund Hillary was not allowed to demand a tax of all who followed after him up the slopes of Mt. Everest, but who certainly found ways to profit from his fame, the only property interest that Myriad Genetics should be allowed to gain from its significant human achievement is to set up the most efficient business model possible in its use of this knowledge. That is what capitalism is about – competing. Therefore, given that Myriad Genetics launched a head start and holds the upper hand on the competition, it had better get on with it and just run on ahead of the competition and stop whining and insisting that we provide it with a government-sanctioned crying room at the exclusion of everyone else.
Loren M. Lambert © April 15, 2013
Having planted “their flag,” Myriad Genetics wants our government to back it up so that it can demand, at a price that it sets, a toll from anyone who wants to locate, reach, and find beneficial uses of that same summit within the bodies of human beings. Problem is, they don't own, nor have sovereignty over, the DNA mountain ranges where those peaks are found. Individual human beings do.
Myriad Genetics needs to understand this. Just because someone or some business spends a lot of money to achieve some noteworthy goal does not ipso facto mean that they earn the right to wield a government-enforced monopoly to profit from their efforts. Some scientific peaks, some human endeavors, some calls to excellence, and some actual peaks are scaled not for the purpose of conquest, profit, or right to possess, but for the mere achievement, and as a beacon for all to follow who can.
Just as Sir Edmund Hillary was not allowed to demand a tax of all who followed after him up the slopes of Mt. Everest, but who certainly found ways to profit from his fame, the only property interest that Myriad Genetics should be allowed to gain from its significant human achievement is to set up the most efficient business model possible in its use of this knowledge. That is what capitalism is about – competing. Therefore, given that Myriad Genetics launched a head start and holds the upper hand on the competition, it had better get on with it and just run on ahead of the competition and stop whining and insisting that we provide it with a government-sanctioned crying room at the exclusion of everyone else.
Loren M. Lambert © April 15, 2013
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